'Where is your God now', said police beating terror suspect

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Babar Ahmad

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Babar Ahmad arm 415

Four police officers battered a terrorist suspect in front of his wife after he had surrendered and had been handcuffed, a court heard today.

Defenceless and barefoot in pyjamas, Babar Ahmad, 36, was forced to his knees in his prayer room and taunted: "Where is your God now?"

The beating continued in the police van as he was taken from his Tooting home to Charing Cross police station, a Southwark crown court jury was told. When the bruised Mr Ahmad was taken before the custody officer the four policemen "lied" that he had been violent as he resisted arrest.

Mr Ahmad suffered injuries to his head, neck, chest, back, arms, feet and all over his body, said prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw. "The defendants subjected him to a sustained and very violent assault - in effect they gave him a beating or they beat him up," he added.

Roderick James-Bowen, 40, Nigel Cowley, 33, and Mark Jones, 43, who are all constables, and detective constable John Donohue, 36, all deny assault. The officers were part of a Territorial Support Group team supporting anti-terrorist branch officers to arrest Mr Ahmad in a dawn raid in December 2003. He was suspected of being the leader of a small group "providing logistical support, financial assistance, recruits and computer expertise for terrorist organisations operating abroad".

The operation was launched 11 months after terrorist Kamel Bourgass had stabbed to death Dc Stephen Oake during a similar operation in Manchester. Bourgass is now serving life, the court was told.

Mr Ahmad was released without charge six days after his arrest. But a year later he was arrested again after the US demanded his extradition on the grounds of being an al Qaeda terrorist. Mr Ahmad is still fighting his extradition, the court heard.

Before the arrest operation was launched the officers were given a briefing in which they were told that every step must be taken to avoid a similar tragedy to the murder of Dc Oake. Not wishing to take any chances Pc James-Bowen knocked Mr Ahmad backwards, smashing the bedroom window as the room filled with police. Ignoring his wife's pleas, the accused officers handcuffed Mr Ahmad but continued to beat him. The case continues.